Belle Glade

Belle Glade is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. Belle Glade (and the surrounding area) is sometimes referred to as "Muck City" due to the large quantity of muck, in which sugarcane grows, found in the area. For a time during the early to mid 1980s, the city had the highest rate of AIDS infection per capita (37 cases in a population of roughly 19,000) in the United States. The city has a total area of 4.7 square miles (7.2 square km), which has a size of 17,467 square kilometers (7,467 sq miles) The city is known for its football tradition, and together with nearby Pahokee has "sent at least 60 players to the National Football League". In 2010, half of the young men in the city between the ages of 18 and 25 had felony convictions. In 2003, the FBI said the city has the second highest violent crime rate in the country at 298 per 10,000 residents. The town was founded during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. A powerful hurricane struck the area on September 16, 1928, inundating towns around the lake and causing widespread damage. German prisoners of war were confined in camps located at Belleglade and nearby Clewiston during World War II. Today, the area around Lake O keechobees is fertile and farming is an important industry. Sugar cane and vegetables are grown there.

History

The town of Belle Glade was founded during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. A powerful hurricane struck the area on September 16, 1928. In the early 1980s, researchers began to notice a large number of people with AIDS in Belle Glades. The town is known for its football tradition, and together with nearby Pahokee has "sent at least 60 players to the National Football League" In recent years, the area around Lake Okeechobee is fertile and farming is an important industry. Sugar cane and vegetables are grown there.Migrant farmworkers are an important part of the labor force. A 1960 CBS television documentary, Harvest of Shame, graphically depicted the local migrant farmerworkers' daily existence and working conditions. As of May 2014 the city has plans "to demolish the loading ramp and turn it into a park" The town has been nicknamed the "AIDS capital of the world" because of its high per capita AIDS rate. It has a population of around 2,000 people, with around half of them being women. It is located on the Florida East Coast Railway, which helped the town's development in 1926. German prisoners of war were confined in camps located at Belleglade and nearby Clewiston during World War II. The city is home to the Florida Institute of Tropical Medicine, which studies the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, through heterosexual sex. It was founded in 1921 by the Florida legislature to study methods of growing crops on reclaimed Everglades land.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.7 square miles (12 km²) of which 4.8 square miles are land and 0.21 square miles is water. The city is located on the Mississippi River, which runs through the center of the city. It is the only city in the state to be named after a former president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, who died in office in 1969. The town has a population of 4,816. It has a climate of predominantly tropical and subtropical climate. The area has a humid continental climate (Köppen "Cfb") with an average monthly temperature of  4.7 °F (1.9 °C) and an average annual rainfall of 4,814 square miles (11,822 sq m) The city has an average yearly rainfall of 1,813 square m (4,715 sq ft) and a yearly average temperature of 1.8 °M (3,723 sqft) It is one of only a handful of cities in the country to have an annual average rainfall of more than 1,000 square feet (1,824 sq m) and has a daily mean temperature of  6.7°C (2,721 sq mi) The average annual precipitation is 1,722 square inches (6,821 square kilometers).

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 16,698 people, 6,642 households, and 3,760 families residing in the city. In 2000, speakers of English as a first language accounted for 61.03% of all residents, while Spanish as a mother tongue consisted of 26.87%. As of 2000, Belle Glade had the tenth highest percentage of Haitian residents in the United States, at 11.50% of the populace. It also had the sixtieth highest percentage. of Cuban residents nationally, at 5.98%. The city's population was spread out, with 33.5% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 8. 7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median income for a household in theCity was $22,715, and the median income. for a family was $26,756. About 28.5%. of families and 32.9% of. the population were below the poverty line, including 41.1%. of those under age 18 and 21.4% of those age 65 or over. The per capita income for the city was $11,159. The average household size was 3.04 and the average family size was3.62. The city had a population of 6,368 in 2010, out of which 11.3% were vacant.

Economy

As of Feb. 2013, the official unemployment rate was about 15%; however, the town's mayor suggested the actual Unemployment rate was closer to 40%. The number of jobs available locally dropped as local agriculture shifted from vegetables to sugarcane, a more highly mechanized crop. The Florida Department of Corrections operated the Glades Correctional Institution in an unincorporated area in Palm Beach County near Belle Glade. It was founded in 1932, employed about 350, had a capacity of 918 inmates and was scheduled for closure in December 2011. The U.S. Postal Service operates the Belle Glades Post Office. The town is located on the Florida Turnpike, which runs from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. It has a population of about 2,000, with the majority of its residents living in the unincorporated area of Belleglade, which is located in the southern part of the county. It is the only town in the state to have a post office, which was established in 1881. The post office is owned by the United States Postal Service, which also runs the BelleGlade Post Office in the nearby town of Boca Raton. The village is home to the "Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative" (SCGC), which operates a cane sugar mill. During the crop season the factory employs 550 people. The mill is located near the town of Belle glade, Florida, and is owned and operated by the SCGC. The SCGC is a member of the Florida Growers Association.

Parks and recreation

The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail runs through Belle Glade. The trail is part of the Florida State Park System. The park system was established in the 1930s to protect the area's water supply. The lake is a popular destination for boaters and other water-users. It is also a popular spot for hiking and camping in the area. It runs through the Belle Glades section of the state park system, which was created in the 1950s and 1960s. It was named for the Belleglade area of the park's namesake, which is located in the town of BelleGlade, Florida. It's also known as the Okeecobee River Scenic Area. The Lake Okeschobee Trail runs along the lake's eastern edge. It also runs through a section of Lake Glade, where it meets the Okeeechobees River. The Okeeches River is a tributary of the Okefenokee River, which flows through Belleglades. The waterway is also known for its scenic beauty and is popular with water-occasional waterfalls. It has been designated as a state park since the 1970s and 1980s.

Education

The Palm Beach County School District operates public schools. The Belle Glade Excel Charter School is a charter school. The Palm Beach State College is a private college. There are also private schools and private day schools in the county. The school district also runs a private day school and a private high school.

In popular culture

The final scenes of the crime novel Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman take place in a sugarcane plantation near Belle Glade. The psychedelic pop band of Montreal released a track titled, "Belle Glade Missionaries" on their 2013 album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, characters Janie and Tea Cake join other African American migrant workers in picking beans. The high school football culture of Belle Glades is the subject of the non-fiction book, Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football's Forgotten Town by author Bryan Mealer. In CBS Reports' 1960 program Harvest of Shame, Belleglade plays a prominent role as a source of migrant agricultural labor. The town is featured in the film "The Godfather: Part II" and in the TV series "Harvest of Shame", which airs on PBS stations in the U.S. and on PBS Canada in the UK in the summer of 2014. The film is based on the book "The godfather: Parts I and II", which was written by Michael O'Neill and directed by David O'Brien. The book is about the lives of a family of African Americans who work on a sugar plantation in Louisiana. It is also based on a true story of the life of a woman who worked on the plantation. The novel is the inspiration for the film The Godfather, Part II, which airs in August 2014.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Belle Glade, Palm Beach County, Florida = 92. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 30. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 50. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Belle Glade = 6.3 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 16,698 individuals with a median age of 30 age the population dropped by -9.27% in Belle Glade, Palm Beach County, Florida population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 2,395.01 residents per square mile of area (924.66/km²). There are average 3.11 people per household in the 4,306 households with an average household income of $27,886 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 11.40% of the available work force and has dropped -5.18% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 18.24%. The number of physicians in Belle Glade per 100,000 population = 264.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Belle Glade = 55.3 inches and the annual snowfall = 0 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 125. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 234. 91 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 51.6 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 28, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Belle Glade, Palm Beach County, Florida which are owned by the occupant = 37.94%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 38 years with median home cost = $74,250 and home appreciation of -27.29%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $13.37 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $5,153 per student. There are 16.7 students for each teacher in the school, 465 students for each Librarian and 448 students for each Counselor. 2.35% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 6.31% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 3.78% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).